


Lessons

by ytcompassrose



Series: Hearbeat of the City [2]
Category: NYA (Non-Yog Associates), The Yogscast
Genre: Gen, Urban Magic Yogs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-11
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-03-30 03:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3920635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ytcompassrose/pseuds/ytcompassrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>William Strife attempts to adapt to the magic of the city by learning a spell of his own.</p><p>It does not go as planned.  Expect confusion, ambiguous complements, and a nosy Lalna proposing experiments.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Interference

 

 

William Strife had no idea how long it normally took to learn a spell, but his uncles had introduced this one as a simple exercise in focus, to test his natural talent.  They had told him it might take a few tries.  That had been three days ago.  Three days and 54 attempts.  Unsurprisingly, Will was getting impatient.  

He shifted in his seat next to the stone path next to his uncles' garden, wishing he had brought something to prevent grass stains.  He stared at the candle in a yellow chalk circle on one of the stones and began the focus words Xephos had taught him.  A wisp of smoke still rose from the wick from attempt 54.  Hopefully this time he would actually get a flame.

“Hoc candela accendat. Fac flamma choro. Illuminabit.”

He tried to feel the magic in him.  He knew it was there.  But every time he reached for it, he was bombarded with noises and smells and fragments of images from seemingly random places around him.  He did his best to push the interference away and mentally reached deeper.  There!  A red spark.  He grabbed it.

He repeated the incantation, twitching to avoid a collision with a car several miles away.  Was the smell of smoke coming from in front of him, or from the cigarette butt that had just dropped onto the sidewalk in front of a coffee shop with golden pansies bobbing in its window-boxes?  

He began the incantation again, ignoring the insistent, alluring buzz of neon lights.  He wobbled, then brought the microphone to his lips.  “I like big butts and - No!”  He was William Strife!  He was not that drunk guy in the karaoke booth!   “Hoc candela accendat. Fac flamma choro. Illuminabit.”

Luckily, his misspeech did not seem to have caused any sort of magical accident.  Unfortunately, in pushing away the karaoke scene, he had lost hold of his magic.  Furthermore, the complete lack of a grey wisp rising from the wick meant that attempt 55 had been even less successful than the previous one.

 

Maybe it was time to try this inside, where the interference was slightly less intense.  Will stood up, brushed himself off, grabbed the candle and the chalk, and headed for the kitchen.  The ceiling lights were off, but the window let in plenty of light.  No one was there, though going by the dishes in the sink, Lalna had recently finished a snack.  Xephos was out shopping, and the Advanced Geomancy class Honeydew taught wouldn't end until 2. He took a small clean spellcloth from the cupboard, unfolded it on the counter, and used the chalk to redraw his circle on it.  He set the candle in the middle, pulled up a chair, and searched for his spark.

There it was, and the interference was sufficiently muffled by the threshold that it was much easier to grab, though he still had to struggle to keep his awareness in his own body.  He focused on the candle, forcing himself to pay no attention to the couple flirting by phone or the pigeons rising in a feathered cloud from the feet of a statue in the park.  He spoke the incantation.

He repeated it, sure he felt a connection between his magic and the circle.  The hairs on his arms tingled like there was static in the air.  The murmurs of the city sharpened to a high buzz.

He repeated it again, focusing energy into the wick.  Funny, it felt thinner than he had thought... and metallic?  Weird.  Maybe it was interference.

He repeated the words again.  The wick was becoming very hot.  Why hadn't it ignited?  Why didn't he see any smoke?  It probably needed more energy.  

 

The lightbulb directly above the candle flickered.

 

This was much easier than it had been outside.  He pushed, so caught up in the flow of the spell that the interference faded into the background.  He glimpsed a half-familiar blue flicker but paid it no attention.  It was working! At last, a spell was-

The lightbulb suddenly flared bright and exploded, scattering bits of glass and wire across the countertop.

"Shit!"  Will jumped up from the chair, his concentration broken.  Had he done that?

Noises on the stairs suggested Lalna had heard the explosion or Will's outburst and was coming to investigate.

 

Maybe it was time to end his magic practice for the day.


	2. Things Only Get More Confusing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xephos returns home to find the aftermath of Will's indoor spell practice.

 

"You shouldn't have done that," said Xephos, looking up at the broken bulb in the kitchen.  He was still holding a bag of groceries, but seemed to have forgotten about them after seeing the mess on the counter.  Lalna had insisted the shrapnel should not be moved until he was done analyzing it, and each piece was circled in (nonmagical) chalk and labeled carefully.  

 

"I know.  It was stupid.  I shouldn't have practiced in the house," Will muttered sheepishly as Lalna hurriedly folded up his notes and stuffed them up his sleeve.  

"Will," Xephos started, turning to face his nephew.  His eyes were glowing unusually brightly.  

Will was getting louder.  "But the... I was getting so distracted outside.  I thought it might be easier with the threshold blocking... stuff..." He trailed off, staring at the floor.

"Will, that's not what I meant,"  Xephos continued, his face almost unreadable.  "You shouldn't have been able to do that.  The spell I taught you is very specific.  It shouldn't have affected the lightbulb at all."  

 

Lalna inched his way around to the other side of the counter, where he was hidden by the height of the counter.  However,this also meant he couldn’t see.  No trouble there, though.   He always carried his periscope.  He really needed to make the top end invisible, though.  

 

"It was right above the candle.  I guess it counted as being in the circle too," Will tried to explain.  Was he in trouble? His uncle seemed more confused than angry.  A brass tube telescoped up from the other side of the counter and swiveled to face Xephos.  Will tried, and succeeded, to not look directly at it.  

"In the circle or not, that spell shouldn't have broken the lightbulb."  Xephos turned to look at the chalk and debris on the counter, and the tube shot down.

"I felt it!  I should have wondered why the wick seemed thin and metallic and got so hot without catching fire!"

"You felt the wick? I mean, the filament? What do you mean?"  Lalna pulled himself up onto the counter.  His eyes were bright with curioscity.  “You didn’t say you felt it before!”

"I... I did feel it.  With my magic.  I think."  Will looked from his uncle to the blond homunculus standing on the counter.

"But... then... Did you feel things like that every time you tried the spell?"  Lalna asked, caught up again in his investigation of the lightbulb explosion.

"No... I almost felt the wick a few of the times I got smoke, but this was the first time I really felt a ... connection between me and... what I thought was the candle."  He glanced at Xephos, but his uncle seemed perfectly content to listen to the new conversation.  

“But so… You felt like you were touching the wick?  Filament I mean?  What do you mean it felt metallic?”  Lalna was asking questions rapid-fire.

“I didn’t exactly feel like I was touching it… more like I was in it.  Like I was part of it.  No, like it was… part of me.”  Seeing Xephos frown, Will added, “I thought that was normal.  Just how magic worked.”  From Xephos’s continuing frown, he guessed that was not in fact the case.  

“Feeling an object from the outside is a fairly common phenomenon in spellcasting, but usually takes years of practice.”  Xephos gestured to the spellcloth still lying on the counter.  “That's what the circles are for, and the incantations.  To focus you.  To let you affect the target without having to ‘feel’ it.”  Xephos turned away and began putting away the contents of his shopping bag. With his back turned, he continued “Sometimes a spellcaster doesn’t want to ‘feel’ the target.  Sometimes it could be dangerous.  That’s why we still use circles and rituals for larger spells, even if we can do small ones without them.”  He stopped, wadded up the bag, and put it under the sink.  

 

Lalna was the first to break the silence.  “So what does it mean if Will felt the lightbulb?  From inside.”  The homunculus’s voice had become higher pitched, as if he was nervous about the sudden seriousness.  

When Xephos turned around, his eyes were darker, no longer glowing.  “I have no idea,” he said worriedly.

  
  



End file.
